Zombie Culture

*Disclaimer* This piece didn't turn out quite as well as i would have liked, but in the interest of keeping material flowing and preventing my brain from damming up i'm going to leave it up here. I feel like it's too preachy or something. Too cynical perhaps? Maybe the basic idea is just BAD.... I may tinker with it a bit later, but for now it stays as such. If anybody cares to let me know what they think from a writing standpoint, feel free!
Admittedly, i sometimes want to do this. Maybe it's more like often i want to do this. Especially in my younger days (hehehe...read: middle school and high school) i'd put music in my CD player and try desperately to zone out. Sometimes i still do i guess, every once in a while, just for the sake of zoning out.

I saw this message on an airplane not too long ago and it really struck me: how much does our media culture affirm this way of looking at media?! I suppose perhaps printed media such as magazines or (comic?)books don't have as much of a "for entertainment only" bent to them as say popular radio or film, though obviously some films and songs more than others inevitably draw the listener or the viewer out of themselves and into another world. Certainly some forms of media issue an unavoidable challenge or call for change and all forms contain some--if not a lot of--material intended to entertain.

I suppose "zone out" could be interpreted in that way too--that we would be entertained by something, be drawn into an entirely new world and forget our problems, our bodies, our self-addiction, or our physical location at least for a time. And hey, i enjoy being entertained as much as the next guy. But after a while it starts to seem like the getting lost becomes the point rather than perhaps experiencing something that might have some truth to speak into our day to day experience. Personally, when i get too accustomed to the "plug in. zone out." mindset, it becomes more difficult for me to see films or hear music or even listen to other people talk and realize, "Hey, this might have some sort of light to shed on life, existence, the cosmos, the Divine!"

Lastly, (my eco-conscious self needs to sneak in another possible interpretation here) one could say "plug in. zone out." were a call to drive electric vehicles powered by renewable energy. Then maybe we'd be able to "zone out" from conflict in the Middle East, relax as we're able to breathe a little easier, and...because the world's not going to melt? Eh, i guess it's destined to melt anyway regardless, now it's just a matter of when.

What do ye think?

In any case, note to self: remember to breathe, remember to notice.